News From National

2022 Annual Meeting information

Information related to the 2022 Annual Meeting can be found here, on aia.org. There you will find the list of declared candidates for the national Board of Directors, as well as instructions for the submission of resolutions.

Call for leadership applications

Join the leadership of an AIA Knowledge Community or AIA committee. Learn more >

Honors & Awards currently open

The Edward C. Kemper Award is currently open until February 15, 2022 and the Healthcare Design Awards is currently open until March 15, 2022. Apply before the deadline! For questions regarding Honors & Awards, please email honorsawards@aia.org.

Designing our future learning environments

International School Services (ISS) School Operations and FXCollaborative present a special three-part series of roundtable discussions between educators and school designers. Each workshop will center on two fundamental questions: what’s essential, and what’s evolving? The findings from these sessions will be published in the ISS periodic magazine NewsLinks. Learn more >

The right to housing with Eric Tars

Adequate housing was recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by the United States. The AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community has convened a Right-to-Housing working group, with the online conversation serving as the first part in an educational series. Earn 1 LU. Learn more >

Nominations are open for the 2022 elections

Architect members in good standing may declare candidacy for AIA elected national office (2023 First Vice President or 2023-2024 Secretary). Individuals eligible for selection as a 2023-2025 At-large Director, per the Bylaws, may also declare candidacy. Deadline: Monday, February 14, 2022, 5pm EST. Learn more >

Healthcare fellowships for young professionals close April 15

The Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) supports young professionals with the Tuttle and GMZ Fellowships in Health Facility Planning & Design. These fellowships help increase awareness of the needs and nature of healthcare facilities, attract talented young architects and students to the field, and advance the knowledge of planning and design for healthcare environments. Learn more >

Nonresidential construction spending projected to increase through 2023

WASHINGTON – Jan. 26, 2022 – According to a new report from the American Institute of Architects, the nonresidential building sector is expected to see a healthy rebound through next year after failing to recover with the broader economy last year.

The AIA’s Consensus Construction Forecast panel—comprising leading economic forecasters—expects spending on nonresidential building construction to increase by 5.4 percent in 2022, and accelerate to an additional 6.1 percent increase in 2023. With a five percent decline in construction spending on buildings last year, only retail and other commercial, industrial, and health care facilities managed spending increases. This year, only the hotel, religious, and public safety sectors are expected to continue to decline. By 2023, all the major commercial, industrial, and institutional categories are projected to see at least reasonably healthy gains.

Architecture firms end 2021 on a strong note

Firms report concerns over recruiting staff to meet workload demands.

WASHINGTON – Jan. 19, 2021 – As architecture firms ended 2021 on a high note with strong business conditions, staff recruitment is becoming a growing concern among firms.  

December’s Architectural Billings Index (ABI) score of 52.0 was an increase from 51.0 in November (any score over 50 indicates billings growth). Despite a variety of concerns related to the omicron variant, labor shortages, and rising prices as well as limited availability of construction materials, firms continued to report a robust supply of work in the pipeline. Inquiries into new work and the value of new design contracts both remained strong, and backlogs, at an average of 6.5 months, remained near their highest levels since the AIA began tracking this metric in 2010.

“Since demand for design projects has been healthy over the last year, recruiting architectural staff to keep up with project workloads has been a growing concern for firms,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “Architecture is one of the few industries where payrolls have already surpassed their pre-pandemic high, so meeting future staffing needs is a challenge that most firms will need to confront.